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Michelle Obama thesis was on racial divide - full text available
Politico.com ^ | 2/22/2008 | Jeffrey Ressner

Posted on 02/22/2008 9:25:40 PM PST by GVnana

Michelle Obama thesis was on racial divide

By: Jeffrey Ressner
Feb 22, 2008 04:20 PM EST
Updated: February 22, 2008 08:07 PM EST

Michelle Obama's senior year thesis at Princeton University, obtained from the campaign by Politico, shows a document written by a young woman grappling with a society in which a black Princeton alumnus might only be allowed to remain "on the periphery." Read the full thesis here: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4.

"My experiences at Princeton have made me far more aware of my 'blackness' than ever before," the future Mrs. Obama wrote in her thesis introduction. "I have found that at Princeton, no matter how liberal and open-minded some of my white professors and classmates try to be toward me, I sometimes feel like a visitor on campus; as if I really don't belong. Regardless of the circumstances underwhich I interact with whites at Princeton, it often seems as if, to them, I will always be black first and a student second."

The thesis, titled "Princeton-Educated Blacks and the Black Community" and written under her maiden name, Michelle LaVaughn Robinson, in 1985, has been the subject of much conjecture on the blogosphere and elsewhere in recent weeks, as it has been "temporarily withdrawn" from Princeton's library until after this year's presidential election in November. Some of the material has been written about previously, however, including a story last year in the Newark Star Ledger.

Obama writes that the path she chose by attending Princeton would likely lead to her "further integration and/or assimilation into a white cultural and social structure that will only allow me to remain on the periphery of society; never becoming a full participant."

(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...


TOPICS: Front Page News; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: barackhusseinobama; chebama; cultofobama; husseinobama; nobama
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To: PapaBear3625
In the 70s when I attended Ole Miss, I think maybe 30% of HS grads went to college.

I came from a Prep School made up of the kids from the richest families in my town and while many were snotty, very few were dumb though ironically as nature would have it some of the obviously dumbest came from the richest families. One is CEO of his family’s private company which ranks on Forbes 100 largest private companies....billions. His daddy always said...hire bright folks son...lol

So when I got to college, I was already used to National Merit Scholar types being everywhere and was actually less challenged in early years. But I bet if I had gone to a fancy school with higher SAT/ACT entry minimums it would have been like you described.

Today we front load kids into college and the drop out is huge. Here in Tennessee, we provide basically free everything the first year, they will take almost anyone in the lower colleges and the drop out rate is extraordinary...60-70% I believe. What a waste of tax money and creates a bloated university.

I doubt smart kids get challenged much either.

An affirmative action kid in the late 70s or early 80s could have been intimidated by Princeton I’d guess. I lived with a Colombia doctoral student and Barnard professor and her crowd were smart but more nerdy and insulated than anything...and liberal and well off. She was an heiress, there was no pressure to succeed but she did.

Michelle seems to just suffer from old fashioned low self esteem and blames the world. That is a cornerstone of what makes liberals what they are.

121 posted on 02/23/2008 9:50:39 AM PST by wardaddy (The fact that a radical like Obama can get nominated here makes me ashamed for my nation.)
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To: PapaBear3625
I live in a nice area of Nashville....not far from Spotted Al. I’m 50 and work a lot and am fortunate.

We have a few black families here and there around here. A renown heart surgery family, Titans, real estate folks, some of the old antebellum freedmen/mulatto merchant class black families still here....anyhow....all successful.

I can tell you because I know them and my kids play ball and go to school with their’s.

They don’t hang in the hood. They hang with us.

That’s life.

That doesn’t mean they might not have kinfolk in Sugar Ditch they still get on with but they have assumed what would be called white upper middle class lifestyle.

But...a big but.......many still vote Dem. I’ve seen no evidence that wealth changes that.

122 posted on 02/23/2008 10:00:21 AM PST by wardaddy (The fact that a radical like Obama can get nominated here makes me ashamed for my nation.)
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To: wardaddy

What a waste of tax money and creates a bloated university.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Government education is jobs program for those with modest talent. It exists for the teachers, not necessarily for the student.


123 posted on 02/23/2008 10:20:36 AM PST by wintertime (Good ideas win! Why? Because people are not stupid.)
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To: Gondring

Seriously? Or are you joking? I downloaded last night, but haven’t had a chance to read the whole thing yet.


124 posted on 02/23/2008 10:22:18 AM PST by sageb1 (This is the Final Crusade. There are only 2 sides. Pick one.)
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To: Travis McGee

No huge surprise. How unoriginal. This will not help hubby.


125 posted on 02/23/2008 10:22:42 AM PST by apocalypto
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To: GVnana
Does anyone else see the hypocrisy and self-fullfilling expectations of this whiny, self-centered, narcissistic, idiotic, racist sh!tforbrains:

"Earlier in my college career, there was no doubt in my mind that as a member of the Black community I was somehow obligated to this community and would utilize all of my present a future resources to benefit this community first and foremost.
.
.
.
Regardless of the circumstances underwhich I interact with whites at Princeton, it often seems as if, to them, I will always be black first and a student second."


1) She enters Princeton believing she's different and is obligated to the Black community "first and foremost".

2) She then feels out of place at Princeton - she thinks White people view her differently.

3) So she writes her thesis about how she felt being a Black student there??

And THAT is Ivy League quality "research"!!???

And so I guess there were no Hispanics or Asians at Princeton - or at least they didn't exist or their opinions didn't matter in HER narrow black & white view of the world.

God help us if this self-important, narcissistic, "white-mans-keeping-me-down" racist Marxist becomes our "First Lady".



126 posted on 02/23/2008 10:23:20 AM PST by The_Macallan
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To: sageb1

I’m serious. Introduction, page 1, she anticipates being a black man after graduation.


127 posted on 02/23/2008 10:23:56 AM PST by Gondring (I'll give up my right to die when hell freezes over my dead body!)
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To: Gondring

I’ll check it out. If true, it would explain the rumors about Barack. ;)


128 posted on 02/23/2008 10:27:22 AM PST by sageb1 (This is the Final Crusade. There are only 2 sides. Pick one.)
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To: GVnana

She has commented on understanding the phenomenon of successful Blacks never feeling good enough because of their low test scores. One can only imagine her SAT and LSAT results before her Ivy League law school training as well.


129 posted on 02/23/2008 10:31:11 AM PST by 9YearLurker
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To: GVnana

Was Michelle Obama an ethnic studies major, or perhaps women’s studies? Ethnic victimization is what they are taught. I know a young woman who was an ethnic studies major at University of WA, she was taking a required course in minorities in the military. The whole course consisted of one paper on the experience of some member of your family in the military. I told her that should be easy, she could write about her uncle and the Bataan Death March. She smiled and said, thats not what they are looking for.


130 posted on 02/23/2008 10:31:41 AM PST by Eva (Benedict Arnold was a war hero, too.)
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To: Gondring
Sex-change ambitions? Unless you mean the innocuous mention of being a future alumnus...I don't see what you're seeing!
131 posted on 02/23/2008 10:32:34 AM PST by 668 - Neighbor of the Beast ( Peel back tabs for tagline. Do not remove this label. Obey.)
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To: 668 - Neighbor of the Beast

Yes, she intends to be an alumnus, not an alumna.

This is a Princeton thesis, so I must assume she meant what she wrote.


132 posted on 02/23/2008 10:33:42 AM PST by Gondring (I'll give up my right to die when hell freezes over my dead body!)
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To: sageb1
I’ll check it out. If true, it would explain the rumors about Barack. ;)

hehehe

133 posted on 02/23/2008 10:34:14 AM PST by Gondring (I'll give up my right to die when hell freezes over my dead body!)
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To: Eva
Was Michelle Obama an ethnic studies major, or perhaps women’s studies? Ethnic victimization is what they are taught.

As you can see from her senior thesis, she majored in sociology with a minor in African studies.

134 posted on 02/23/2008 10:36:27 AM PST by GVnana ("They're still analyzing the first guy. What do I have to worry about?" - GWB)
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To: 668 - Neighbor of the Beast; sageb1
I apologize. After reading again, I see that she says that her study will be a black graduate, not that she will.

This is horrible writing and atrocious grammar for a supposed Ivy-League thesis.

135 posted on 02/23/2008 10:39:08 AM PST by Gondring (I'll give up my right to die when hell freezes over my dead body!)
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To: Gondring
I’m serious. Introduction, page 1, she anticipates being a black man after graduation.

I'm surprised the "alumnus" reference wasn't corrected. There really isn't any accepted use of it for a woman. Shoddy.

136 posted on 02/23/2008 10:41:50 AM PST by GVnana ("They're still analyzing the first guy. What do I have to worry about?" - GWB)
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To: irishjuggler

That was my thought. This is the work of a student about to graduate from an Ivy League University? I would expect this or better from a high school student.


137 posted on 02/23/2008 10:42:45 AM PST by kalee (The offenses we give, we write in the dust; Those we take, we write in marble. JHuett)
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To: GVnana
I'm surprised the "alumnus" reference wasn't corrected. There really isn't any accepted use of it for a woman. Shoddy.

Heck, the same sentence has a dangling participle and a misused semicolon, too.

138 posted on 02/23/2008 10:44:42 AM PST by Gondring (I'll give up my right to die when hell freezes over my dead body!)
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To: GVnana

I think the whole thesis is appalling, but I’m not so sure that the ‘alumnus’ reference isn’t common practice.

Just as ‘man’ is sometimes used to include men and women, I believe that alumnus is used as a generic reference to the broader category of male and/or female alums. (And ‘actors’ to include actors and actresses, etc.)


139 posted on 02/23/2008 10:46:12 AM PST by 9YearLurker
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To: kalee
It's certainly no study of the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili. ;-)
140 posted on 02/23/2008 10:48:15 AM PST by Gondring (I'll give up my right to die when hell freezes over my dead body!)
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